24Seven talent managementHow Mercer | Mettl helped 24Seven stores to find and develop employees who offered superlative customer service round-the-clock.

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About the organization

From everyday essentials to the best global brands, from ready-to-eat food counters to a wide selection of personal care products,24Seven shelves everything under one roof.

A one-stop-shop for all customer needs, 24Seven has taken the retail market by storm and carved a niche for itself.

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24Seven is India’s first and only twenty-four hour retail outlet and convenience store chain. The 100+ stores of 24Seven, spread across Delhi-NCR and Chandigarh, are thoroughly loved by customers, which is evident by large footfalls at the stores.

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24Seven, a pioneering and unique brand in the retail space, was eyeing large-scale expansion.

24Seven needed a better talent management and acquisition plan to overcome its challenges:

The talent that could not keep pace with the demands of the growing business needs.

An inconsistent recruitment strategy forin-store employees.

A high attrition rate among in-store employees.

Promotions were notably affected by subjectivity and biases.

Business challenges & requirements

2

From 25-30 stores, it was expanding to new geographies, with 100+ stores. Aside from the expansion, the company was also rebranding the clients’ store experience.

At this critical juncture, 24Seven realized that this grand strategy’s success largely depended on its in-store employees. They were the brand’s foremost emissaries and represented the company among the customers walking intothe stores.

Due to the business’s distinct nature, i.e., being functional round-the-clock, 24Seven store employees mandated unique skill sets. 24Seven needed talent that could support and manage the pace of its growth.

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Solution

The business required a proactive sales force that could deliver a delightful customer experience to uphold its ethos. Toward this end, Mercer | Mettl devised a dual approach that incorporated an action plan for hiring and organizational development:

A high-potential identification program to objectively identify the best available talent and focus on their development.

An effective hiring strategy to hire the right people, the right way.

High-potentials forhigh-paced growth

The phenomenal growth then envisioned by 24Seven, a reality today, started with first identifying high-potential employees whocould take charge. 24Seven needed its besttalent to step up and contribute to the flourishing business. Mercer | Mettl offered a strategy that included identifying the best talent, alsolending objectivity to the appraisal and development process.

Mercer | Mettl deep-dived to understand the high-potential identification exercise’s building blocks - the roles, levels and competencies under consideration. Mercer | Mettl conducted a sensing exercise consisting of group discussions and visionary workshops with all the stakeholders to identify essential competencies, develop a shared understanding and, based on it, choose the tool composition.

The high-potential assessment aimed to evaluate in-store employees, comprising of store managers, assistant store managers, and associate store managers, on the following broad competencies:

Gautam SarafHead HR, 24Seven Retail, Colorbar Cosmetic, Modicare Foundation

“Mercer | Mettl made it exceptionally easy for 24Seven to trust it with identifying high-potentials. Its approach toward the whole process, how it understood the competencies, the job roles, convinced all the stakeholders to take the process forward.”

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The 24-hour format demanded utmost alacrity from employees to navigate tricky situations quickly and smoothly. The changing dynamic of the business environment through the day and the night mandatedthe highest agility levels from employees.

A broad competency included facets of communication and confidence, as in-store employees needed to proactively help customers for guidance and support to navigate a purchase. Since the customers’ profiles walking into a 24-hour retail store varied significantly through 24 hours, high levels of customer-centricity ensured that all customer complaints were handled with similar commitment levels.

Managing a 24-hour business and its employees mandated extraordinary leaders who could motivate, inspire, influence and guide others.

Mercer | Mettl created a customized assessment for 24Seven employees to be administered through a virtual assessment and development center (VADC) for a coherent high-potential identification process. This enabled the 24Seven store employees to take the test at their convenience, from their homes or the corporate office.

The high-potential identification program helped 24Seven identify driven employees who could be developed and promoted to take charge of the business because of its easy scalability, logistical convenience, security features and ease of access.

Mercer | Mettl’s high-potential identification assessments also factored in the store employees’ humble backgrounds. English communication wasn’t their strongest suit. Thus, Mercer | Mettl customized assessments in Hindi and English to cater to employees speaking either of the two languages. Mercer | Mettl designed easy-to-understand assessments for employees. Thus, the employees’ real competencies could be assessed seamlessly rather than language becoming an impediment.

a)

b)

c)

Customer-centricity & handlingcustomer grievances

Leadership

Agility

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Hiring the right people,the right way

24Seven is a multi-retail store, with employees spread across geographies. Therefore, maintaining a consistent flow and hiring format was a challenge. 24Seven doubted the efficiency of its hiring process and felt it wasn’t getting the right set of people.

While hiring was done through standard guiding tools, each person gauged and assessed a potential employee differently.

Mercer | Mettl’s assessments, evaluating psychometric, sales and operations skills, were placed at the beginning of the hiring process. The assessments filtered out candidates who didn’t meet the pre-defined benchmarks set by 24Seven.

Mercer | Mettl’s assessments evaluated candidates on the key skills required to perform the job well and shortlisted them based on their assessment scores. This significantly helped 24Seven create a streamlined hiring process, which saved significant time for all the stakeholders involved.

Mercer | Mettl’s solution aimed at lending uniformity to the recruitment process acrossevery 24Seven store.

Since the assessments could be taken anytime, anywhere, secured by Mercer | Mettl’s advanced proctoring suite, the candidates did not have to miss their store duties. As feedback post the assessments was readily available, 24Seven provided a superior candidate experience to all applicants.

Administratively, it saved significant time as hiring managers only met the candidates once their abilities were validated through Mercer | Mettl assessments. This also improved the interview process as the interviewer already knew what questions to ask based on the assessment results. Thus, Mercer | Mettl’s hiring solution helped conscious interview-taking.

Gautam Saraf

Head HR, 24Seven Retail, Colorbar Cosmetics, Modicare Foundation

“All the hiring is done through Mercer | Mettl’s assessments. Every candidate is being evaluated on a set of consistent parameters.”

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6

Impact

Mercer | Mettl’s high-potential identification and hiring strategies positively impacted 24Sevenin the following ways:

The high-potential identification exercise enabled 24Seven to fill up 70% of positions internally.

Promotions became more objective and not just based on supervisors’ recommendations, which could be biased.

Employees were identified and developed early on.

It created an environment for learning and instilled career growth within the organization.

“We are extremely confident today that the promotions are not just based on supervisors’ endorsements. We are genuinely identifying talent that has the willingness and caliber to climb up the ladder.”

Gautam Saraf

Head HR, 24Seven Retail, Colorbar Cosmetics, Modicare Foundation

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Today, all the hiring in 24Seven retail stores is undertaken using Mercer | Mettl’s assessments, offering the necessary checks and balances. 24Seven has implemented a homogenous hiring process resulting in:

Improved candidate experience because of easy virtual access, multi-language support and instant feedback.

Better candidate quality.

Enhanced customer metrics.

Significant increase in retention.

A remarkable decrease in attrition - 24Seven is experiencing the lowest attrition rate in the retail industry.

55% to 20%

40% to 18%

The attrition rate of store managers isone-third of what it used to be, from

Substantial improvement in Employee Net Promoter Score (NPS) from the employee perspective.

The average store attrition rate hascome down from

Time-efficient hiring processes as Mercer | Mettl’s assessments serve as the first step for shortlisting candidates.

Head HR, 24Seven Retail, Colorbar Cosmetics, Modicare Foundation

Gautam Saraf

“Mercer | Mettl has always been an incredibly thoughtful and helpful partner. Starting from understanding our challenges in bothhigh-potential identification and hiring to making an effort to meet every stakeholder in the process, it satisfied everyone very well. Mercer | Mettl’s flexibility is notable here. It has helped us out at each step, whether in having a vernacular option, providing a layer of security to our virtual assessments, customizing reports and feedback format, or offering an individual development plan.”

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